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The Role and Importance of Translation for the Albanian Culture

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The Role and Importance of Translation for the Albanian Culture The Role and Importance of Translation for the Albanian Culture La función y la importancia de la traducción para la cultura albanesa ARBEN SHALA Charles University, Faculty of Arts, nám. Jana Palacha 1/2, 116 38 Staré Město, Czechia. Dirección de correo electrónico: [email protected] ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0495-7884 Recibido: 17/10/2020. Aceptado: 15/9/2020. Cómo citar: Shala, Arben, «The Role and Importance of Translation for the Albanian Culture», Hermēneus. Revista de Traducción e Interpretación, 22 (2020): 383-413. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24197/her.22.2020.383-413 Abstract: This paper outlines the importance of translation activity for the Albanian culture beginning from the earliest period, as a driving force and forerunner of the Albanian National Awakening and identity, to the latest developments related to the quantity of translations, as well as their quality, peacebuilding in Kosovo and the use of translation for subversive propaganda. Translation, along with religion and masterpieces of world literature, brought different alphabetic scripts, many foreign words and, despite the adversarial approach by the Church and ruling authorities, contributed to the codification efforts, language purification and the coining of new words. Common expressions and folklore were collected and found their way into translated texts, now serving as grounds to call for retranslation. Keywords: Translation, national awareness, folklore, standardisation, tolerance. Resumen: Este artículo trata de describir la importancia de la actividad de traducción para la cultura albanesa desde el primer período, como fuerza impulsora y precursora del despertar nacional y la identidad albanesa, hasta los últimos desarrollos relacionados con la calidad y cantidad de la traducción, la construcción de la paz en Kosovo y el uso de la traducción como propaganda subversiva. La traducción, junto con la religión y las obras maestras de la literatura mundial, aportó diferentes escrituras alfabéticas, muchas palabras extranjeras y, a pesar de la actitud adversaria de la Iglesia y las autoridades gobernantes, contribuyó en los esfuerzos de codificación, purificación del lenguaje y para acuñar nuevas palabras. Las expresiones comunes y el folclore se recopilaron y encontraron su camino en los textos traducidos, lo que ahora sirve como motivo para reclamar una nueva traducción. Palabras clave: Traducción, conciencia nacional, folclore, estandarización, tolerancia. Summary: 1. Introduction; 2. Early translations until 1912; 3. Kosovo during the years 1912- 1945; 4. Translation in Albania during the years 1912 -1945; 5. Translation activity in post-World War II Albania; 6. Translation in post-WWII Kosovo until the abolition of autonomy in 1989; 7. Translation in Kosovo during the 1990s; 8. Translation in post-1999 Kosovo; 9. Current translation situation in Albania and Kosovo; 10. Conclusions; References. HERMĒNEUS, 22 (2020): págs. 383-413 ISSN: 2530-609X 384 Arben Shala Sumario: 1. Introducción; 2. Traducciones tempranas hasta 1912; 3. Kosovo durante los años 1912-1945; 4. Traducción en Albania durante los años 1912-1945; 5. Actividad de traducción en Albania después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial; 6. Traducción en Kosovo posterior a la Segunda Guerra Mundial hasta la abolición de la autonomía en 1989; 7. Traducción en Kosovo durante los años noventa; 8. Traducción en Kosovo posterior a 1999; 9. Situación actual de la traducción en Albania y Kosovo; 10. Conclusiones; Referencias bibliográficas. 1. INTRODUCTION Translation in Albanian-speaking areas in the Balkans relates to the education system and the extent to which the Albanian language was recognised in education and administration. This work is an attempt to bring a summary of key translation activity and the role it had for the Albanian-speaking population in the Balkans and their culture. It does not focus on present-day borders because it would be incomplete. This goes against the tendency the people in the Balkans have to explain the history from the modern-day perspective, forgetting that before the French Revolution of 1789, the nation-states as we know them today did not exist. Kingdoms and empires were political units made up of different ethnic groups that often changed their borders. Their territories were an indicator of physical power rather than linguistic and ethnic homogeneity (Hobsbawm, 1990: p. 80). The methodology herein involves reviewing history books, books on Albanian literature, a memoir of Vedat Kokona (a literary translator and writer). Several journal articles published in Kosovo in Gjurmime Albanologjike (Recherchés albanologiques), other electronic and written resources, articles about translations by translators and publicists contained a wealth of information to conduct the analysis. In the Albanian culture, like in many other national cultures and especially in the cultures of small nations that have not had a long tradition of writing, translations played an important role because they constitute the beginning of the national written literature. Translators, in fact, are regarded as the first authors of national Albanian literature. The first documents written in Albanian were translations followed by original works (Elsie, 2005: pp. 3-31). The translation activity, as in other cultures, appears to have been only an ancillary activity for it was “rarely considered a form of literary scholarship” (Venuti, 1998: pp. 32). Along HERMĒNEUS, 22 (2020): págs. 383-413 ISSN: 2530-609X The Role and Importance of Translation for the Albanian Culture 385 these lines, most Albanian writers conducted translation work at some stage in their creative work. Lawrence Venuti (2005: p. 178) states that “national translation agendas have often been initiated by cultural elites who aim to impose their linguistic and literary values on an entire population”. The “agenda” of the time was the translation of religious texts, an agenda employed quite late in Albanian-speaking areas because historians and linguists claim that for a long time, religion was practised in Latin only, not in translation (Malcolm, 2011: p. 77). After the Ottoman conquest, a form of self-governing policy was implemented, that of the millet (nationality) system, a system grounded in religious adherence rather than on ethnic grounds (Ceylan, 2002: pp. 250-252). In the millet system, Albanians, and their language were not recognised, and consequently, books and education in Albanian were forbidden. This was because people, especially in highlands, were Catholic, loyal to the Pope centred outside the Empire. They were seen as more suspicious than people belonging to millets such as Armenian, Bulgarian, Greek, Jewish, and Serbian who had ecclesiastical centres based within the Ottoman Empire. Millets were entitled to language, education and ecclesiastical justice (Malcolm, 2011: p. 182). Pjetër Bogdani in his Cuneus Prophetarum (1685) referred to the people of Kosovo by their religion as Latins, Mohammedans or Schismatic (Rizaj, 1991: p. 85), while in southern Albania, Orthodox Albanian people were considered Greek (Jacques, 1995: p. 207). Regardless of this, in this period the foundations were laid for the translation and publication of religious literature in Albanian. To date, Albanians adhere to three different religious groups: Muslim (Sunni and Shia), Roman Catholic, and Orthodox. 2. EARLY TRANSLATIONS UNTIL 1912 The earliest record of translation in Albanian, constituting thus the first written text in Albanian is a document containing a Baptismal Formula (1462) written by Archbishop Paul Angelus (Pal Engjëlli) in a circular letter in Latin. The Formula would serve the families to baptise their children at home in times when it was not possible in church or when a priest was missing because of the war against the Ottoman Empire (Bihiku, 1980: p. 11). HERMĒNEUS, 22 (2020): págs. 383-413 ISSN: 2530-609X 386 Arben Shala Although under Ottoman rule, the Reformation triggered the translation activity, Meshari (The Missal) by Gjon Buzuku was translated and printed in 1555. After this, there are no records of translation activity until 1592, when Lekë Matrënga translated Dottrina Christiana (Christian Doctrine) written by Diego de Ledesma. The works selected for translation were generally catechisms like Dottrina Christiana (Christian Doctrine)1 by Cardinal Roberto Bellarmino (1618), and Specchio di confessione by Emerio de Bonis (1621), translated by Pjetër Budi as part of the Counter-Reformation. As a result, the Vatican allowed the use of Albanian instead of Latin in books and religious services in order to resist the spread of Islam in Eastern Europe. Although, little work has been done thus far with the transcriptions of Budi’s translations, his translation and political activities were aimed at replacing the foreign clergy with Albanian (Ajeti, 2017 [1961]: p. 40; Elsie, 2005: pp. 9-27). Translation activity increased more with Frang Bardhi who published a Latin-Albanian Dictionary (1635). It included more than 100 proverbs, some of them translated from Latin, Italian, and Turkish. In 1685, Pjetër Bogdani published his original work Cuneus Prophetarum (The Band of the Prophets) in Albanian with a parallel translation in Italian. Bogdani’s work is considered “the most beautiful monument of prose written in the Gheg literary dialect of the time” (my translation). Then a catechism by Gjon Kazazi followed, translated as Përmbledhje e shkurtë e doktirines së krishterë (Rome, 1743) (Ajeti, 2017: p. 752). In general,
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